New Favorites: Vegetarian Dinners

Jim and I love to incorporate a lot of vegetarian meals into our diets – They are tasty, good for us and are usually cheaper to prepare.

Here are 3 that have quickly risen to the top of our “make again” list!  (click image for recipe)

Crispy Gnocchi with Homemade Pesto: Make a double-batch and enjoy for lunch the next day!

Farfalle with Chipotle, Black Beans and Corn: Sensitive palates – Beware!!  Chiles in adobo make this recipe a HOT one!  P.S. We substituted in sour cream for mayonnaise.

Soba Noodles with Sweet Ginger Scallion Sauce: So easy to put together – Dinner will be ready before you know it!

Do you have any favorite vegetarian dishes you’d like to share with me?

Winning!

I’ve mentioned before that when it comes to jewelry, I am pretty much a minimalist – Simple earrings and the occasional necklace.

Recently, I’ve been on the hunt for a new pair of no-fuss studs I could pop in my ears and wear daily.  Well, you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that I was the lucky winner of this lovely pair of turquoise earrings from Little Bug Jewelry!

Jane creates beautiful bead, metalwork and wire-wrapped jewelry.  Her shop contains a variety of accessories (from sleek stacking rings to bold statement necklaces) to compliment men and women of all styles.

Click here to browse her selections!

New Stuff

Finally had a chance to whip up a few new items and list them in the shop this weekend – Take a look!

Microbe Magnets:  Old friends in new colors and a fresh new set of 3 phytoplankton species (blue-green algae, purple bacterium and a diatom).

Embroidery Hoop Art:  I love chemistry … and anything wrapped in a puff pastry.

[click image for listing]

Cheering them on from over 1200 miles away!

My dad and sister are running the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon today!!

I ran the LVHM for the first time back in 2010 (and again in 2011) with my dad, but this is my sister’s first 13.1-mile race.

Even though I can’t be there to run it, I’ll definitely be thinking about them this morning … O man, what I wouldn’t give to kick it into high gear for the last 100 meters and race my sister to the finish line!

My dad’s been talking about flying down this winter to do a half marathon with me in the Miami area (I say we just head on over to Shark Valley – Nothing like a few alligators along the road to make you pick up your pace a little bit!) – So it looks like I may be registering for another one in the near future!

Hope you guys are having a great weekend!

Graduate School, Year 1 – Done!

Seriously, can someone please pinch me?  Where did the past two semesters go??

I can’t believe I am already done with my first year of graduate school!

AND (barring any unforeseen mistakes I might have made on my final this morning) I’m pretty sure I’ll be wrapping up this year with a 4.0 GPA!  Thank you, University of Delaware, for forcing me to endure your ridiculous chemistry curriculum as an undergrad – You’ve obviously prepared me well.

Now that I don’t have to worry about classes for a few months, I can spend more time in the lab – Yay!

That isn’t sarcasm, by the way – I’m really excited that my days will go from looking like this …

… to this!!

Okay maybe not quite that – But you get the idea.

Good luck to all my fellow students who are wrapping up their semesters too!